Label: Greenleaf Music, 2019

Personnel - Dave Douglas: trumpet; Anna Webber: tenor saxophone, flutes; Jeff Parker: guitar; Tomeka Reid: cello; Nick Dunston: bass; Kate Gentile: drums.

On Engage, the long-established trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Dave Douglas boasts tight-knit arrangements of 12 self-penned compositions shaped with the help of his cross-generational musical cohorts: Anna Webber on flutes and tenor sax, Tortoise’s Jeff Parker on guitar, Tomeka Reid on cello, Nick Dunston on bass, and Kate Gentile on drums. This first Engage act - defined as Optimism. Action. Community - envisions to make the necessary changes to preserve the environment, equality, sciences, and humanities. Hence, metabolizing any possible frustration into hope, Douglas developed all pieces from major triads as a reminder to himself to stay positive.

The album opens and closes in a graceful 4/4 pop/rock-ish song format with “Showing Up” and “Heart Science”, respectively. Displaying catchy melody, the former tune has Parker leading off with the first improvisation, followed by a collective effort.

Electrifying noise and guitar distortion mix with the skittish push-pull energy on “Faith Alliance”, a compact rock exercise propelled by choppy and aggressive drumming. The radical transition to the subsequent piece, the gospelized “Free Libraries”, creates a positive effect as the group eases the tension with casual smoothness. This tune is professed in seven.

On five selected tracks, trumpeters Dave Adewumi and Riley Mulherkar join the core group as special guests, playing side by side on two of them, namely, “Where Do We Go From Here”, whose nimble jazz moves comply with the transfixing groove in six, and “Living Earth”, where they embrace the general swinging elation, contributing melodic density to the theme statement. Reid's pertinent cello reactions to the soloists’ ideas are noticeable on this latter piece.

A trumpet duel between Douglas and Adewuni may also be enjoyed on “One Sun, a Million Rays”, which evolves into an avant-garde marching funk after initial bass pedal suspensions, flickering guitar lamination, and high-pitched flute whistling.

Packing a slow-building charge, “In It Together” injects some ambiguity with the bass flute and a mesh of percussion opening the way for cello rambles and a short scenic muted trumpet solo. The mood here has nothing to do with pieces such as “How Are The Children?”, a soaring anthem featuring a jabbing tenor solo, and “Everywhere But Here”, which gracefully unfurls with an additive 8+6 meter signature.

With a newfound sense of aesthetic as part of his compositional focus, Douglas invites all listeners to “engage”. Let’s do it folks!